Climate change is here. This is how it is affecting Indiana and what’s to come

Indiana may seem isolated from the effects of a changing climate, but increasing temperatures and changes in precipitation are already affecting Hoosiers.

The impact as greenhouse gas emissions continue to warm the planet will touch everything from native wildlife and plant hardiness zones to poison ivy and potholes.

Researchers have been studying the effects of human-caused climate change, and while many reports point to dire consequences, many groups are working toward solutions to help avoid the worst scenarios.

Here’s what Indiana is facing under climate change:

Increasing temperatures

The Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment, put together at Purdue University, says the statewide annual average temperature has been increasing since 1895 and will see “significantly more warming by century’s end.”

Much of that increase, according to Purdue, has occurred since the 1960s, leading to spring arriving much earlier than a century ago. This warming trend has sped up in recent decades, and even small changes lead to serious local impacts.

The warming will increase the number of extreme heat stress days, putting Hoosier health at risk. IU’s ERI projects southern Indiana will face 38-51 days at or exceeding 95 degrees each year by 2050. This is an increase from the seven days of extreme temperatures the region historically experienced.

This warming trend also contributes to the phenomenon Gabe Filippelli, executive director of IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute, called Loss of Winter.

“A lot of our natural ecosystems are designed to have a nice hard winter,” Filippelli said. “A nice hard winter kills back insects. A nice hard winter sets certain fish species up for success. And a nice hard winter also ensures that some of our flowering and seeding plants emerge at the time that they’ve always have. So, we’re losing that.”

The changes in temperature and precipitation can also add to stress on Indiana’s key agricultural products like corn, soybeans and wheat, leading to a reduction in crop yields.

Recently: Indiana State University professor and colleagues say climate warming faster than expected

Changing precipitation patterns

As temperatures rise, rainfall increases throughout the state. Purdue’s study says Indiana has seen a 15% annual increase in precipitation since 1895, which is about an extra 5.6 inches each year.

While the rainfall accumulation will not fall evenly across the state, it’s expected to increase the risk of flooding. This flooding could be exacerbated by the state’s historic loss of wetlands, which have recently lost even more protections after Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Alan Morrison’s (R-Terre Haute) HB1383 into law.

“Rainfall is not coming at the same time, it’s coming as big flooding events more often than not,” Filippelli said. “So that’s causing real challenges in communities as they’re getting flooded more and more frequently.”

Those floods not only affect roadways and basements. Filippelli said in a lot of communities heavy rains push a lot of raw sewage into local waterways, which has its own impacts.

Threats to water quality

Indiana was listed as the state with the dirtiest waterways in a 2022 report, and climate change could add more stress on the vital resource.

Fallow farmland in the winter will experience increased rainfall, potential washing fertilizer and sediment off fields and degrade waters downstream, Purdue’s study says. As temperatures rise, Indiana’s waters will also warm. This warmer water will allow more harmful bacteria to grow enhancing health threats.

There is hope: Hoosiers working toward solutions

As consequences of climate change to Indiana’s environment, human health and the economy stack up, Filippelli said it would have been great to act 40 or even 20 years ago, but “the next best time to act is now.”

“One positive aspect of the science that has come out is that we know that once we achieve net-zero (meaning we are not producing more carbon dioxide than is being removed), that our temperature stabilizes immediately,” Filippelli said.

While the problem is global, there are things we can do locally.

There are tree planting programs with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and other organizations that help make communities more resilient, large-scale painting of industrial roofs to white, and providing better education.

“There’s a lot that people can do to help us be more resilient, but a lot of it has to come from their voice,” Filippelli said. “They need to be aware there’s concern and they need to be hopeful: ‘Hey, it’s a concern, but it’s not an impossible daunting challenge. I can make local changes to make up my local environment better.’”

Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @karlstartswithk

IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.